The use of touch-sensitive surfaces as input devices for computers and other electronic computing devices has increased significantly in recent years. Exemplary touch-sensitive surfaces include touch pads and touch screen displays. Such surfaces are widely used to navigate through content that is provided on an electronic computing device. A user may wish to move the current position in provided content to a user desired position in the provided content. For example, a user may need to perform such navigation operations in music applications (e.g., iTunes from Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), a video application (e.g., Quicktime from Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), an image editing or viewing application (Aperture or iPhoto from Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), and/or a mobile media player (iPod Touch or iPhone from Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.).
But conventional methods for performing these manipulations are cumbersome and inefficient. For example, scrubbing through content at a single fixed rate is tedious and creates a significant cognitive burden on a user. In addition, conventional methods take longer than necessary, thereby wasting energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.
Accordingly, there is a need for electronic devices with faster, more efficient methods and interfaces for quickly and efficiently scrubbing through content to find a user desired location within the content. Such methods and interfaces may complement or replace conventional methods for scrolling content (or equivalently scrubbing through content). Such methods and interfaces reduce the cognitive burden on a user and produce a more efficient human-machine interface. For battery-operated electronic devices, such methods and interfaces conserve power and increase the time between battery charges.